by prfire | Aug 4, 2016 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
It might seem that Mark Frutkin takes no risks in his fluid and lyric collection Hermit Thrush, but listen closer and you’ll hear the ominous vibration of a thrumming string. The risk Frutkin takes is to remind us that death comes for everyone. While this fact may...
by prfire | Jun 7, 2016 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
Rosanna Deerchild’s second book of poetry, calling down the sky, is a poetically and narratively powerful collection in which Deerchild bears witness to her mother’s experience in residential school, the long-term impacts of that trauma, and both women’s resiliency....
by prfire | Apr 5, 2016 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction
Catherine Hunter’s fourth novel, After Light, is an intricate family chronicle, a story of stubbornness and self-preservation, hardship and survival. The narrative moves from Ireland to New York to Canada, following the lives of Deirdre Quinn, her son Frank Garrison,...
by prfire | Mar 9, 2016 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Drama
Clem Martini’s volume of one-act plays delivers what its title promises: Martini with a Twist. The latest and thirtieth in the important Prairie Play Series from NeWest Press is an attractively packaged and appropriately titled cocktail of a book full of...
by prfire | Feb 9, 2016 | Book Reviews, Drama
When I first encountered Canadian theatre, I was told a specific difficulty local practitioners faced was the lack of an “established” status for local playwrights to aspire to. It was explained that “lack of history” was to blame for the permanent condition of the...
by prfire | Jan 11, 2016 | Book Reviews, Poetry
Though Laurie Kruk’s latest book of poems, My Mother Did Not Tell Stories, possesses an ambivalent title – storytelling either as a way of transferring lore around a kitchen table, or as a euphemism for lying – her poetry steers clear of added or extended meanings....
